The Right Choice

About a year ago, I asked my friends in the blogosphere their opinions on keeping a website and a blog.  I collected and weighed the information so generously shared with me by those with more experience in online networking.

I had started up this blog two years previously but I posted less than once per week.  In two years I had only a little over 100 posts and at the same time I was spending hours updating my website every few weeks.  I had slowly expanded my circle of blog friends and noticed how great their blogs were.  They had nearly everything on their blogs that I had on my website and blog combined and many of them didn't have websites.  I decided to try the way that had been working so well for so many.

I haven't regretted it getting rid of my website for even one day.  I've increased the frequency of my posting, found lots of wonderful blogs to follow and increased my own flock of followers from around forty to over two hundred.  Last week marked the three year anniversary of Susan Says and I intend to keep it going as long as blogging remains popular.  I not try to post at least twice a week but sometimes manage as many as four posts.

I know from attendance at conferences, agents and editors will recommend keeping a website and a blog, but I'm going to stick with just the blog.  I get ten times the visits and page views I ever got on my website and hopefully it will keep increasing.  Concentrating on my blog was the right choice for me.

How many of you maintain websites and blogs?  Do any of you own more than one blog?  Is your blog the main focus of your online promotion?

Blog vs. Website

Exactly one month ago, I decided to do away with my website and go with a blog only.  Thanks to all my wonderful readers who gave me their opinions and insight into their experiences.  They were split about half and half on having both or having a blog only. 

After a month, I thought I'd share my verdict of how it's going.  Let's start with numbers.  I have more than doubled the number of followers on my blog and have more comments than ever.  Page visits for my blog this past month have been triple the usual number of visits I averaged on my website. 

When I decided to do away with my website, I also set a goal for myself to keep my blog active with frequent posting and also to set aside time to visit other blogs.  It's also so easy to change the design on my blog compared to making changes on my website.  In a few weeks I'm going to add another page to my blog to promote an upcoming release.  What's not to love about blogging?

I know from the previous discussion some more of your were thinking of going blog only.  Did anyone else dump their website? 

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and shared their experiences.  I'm learning more every day.  I'm grateful to all my new followers and especially those who stop by here often to comment. 

Now if only I could keep up with Facebook and Goodreads.  Twitter only receives my attention on rare occasions though I usually find lots of links to follow when I do go there.  So now that I settled my blog decision my next question, oh wise audience, is what other social networking tools so you deem worthy of your time?  Facebook?  Twitter?  Goodreads?  LinkedIn?  Others?

Blog or Website

The lines have blurred between websites and blogs.  After much contemplation and seeking advice from friends and colleagues, today I did away with my website.   My blog will now serve the same purpose as my website but it will be more interactive and certainly updated more often.  I've already designed numerous pages offering all the information as my website did and I'll be adding more as I go.  I visited many blogs of authors who have already gone the blog only route.  Their success convinced me.
A big factor in my decision was the ease I find in updating my blog compared to my website.  The website updates always seemed like work.  Posting new articles and interviews on my blog is fun.  Meeting readers and authors through their visits to me and my stops at their blogs is great.  It's so easy to create links to other sites, to other pages in my blog, as well as inserting pictures and video.  So good bye website.
On a different note, today is the second day since Beyond the Gate was released in ebook.  My publisher put up a cool trailer at the top of their website for my book. 
How many of you keep both website and blogs?  How often do you update either of them?